Hornberg Castle

Hornberg Castle (German: Burg Hornberg) is a partially ruined castle located on a steep outcrop above the Neckar valley above the village Neckarzimmern, between Bad Wimpfen and Mosbach. It is the largest and oldest of the castles in the valley.

The original castle was built in the 11th century. It is notable as the stronghold of Götz von Berlichingen, who bought it in 1517 and died there in 1562. The castle was bought by Reinhard of Gemmingen in 1612 and remains in possession of the Gemmingen-Hornberg family today. It was uninhabited from 1738 and left to decay until 1825, when it was partially restored. It has housed a museum since 1968.

It also housed students from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point College of Natural Resources for an annual summer exchange program.

Text adapted from “Hornberg Castle (Neckarzimmern)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Hornberg Castle ranks #3,619 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #281 of the 505 mapped in Germany. Founded c. 1050, it is older than 90% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 325 atlas entries founded in the 11th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 4,959 times in the last 60 days, more than 85% of the atlas. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Heidelberg, 33 km away. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗